^Unless your state library system has an online library that a patron can borrow the digital copy of the desired book and read it on android or iPad. Kentucky and New Jersey have the Overdrive digital library. Very convenient! My reading for pleasure time has gone up dramatically since I discovered how to play work with it.

This online library also have audio books for loan.

As does Michigan, and many, many other states.

There are a few restrictions: you have to live in the district/township/county of the lending library. Not all books are on Overdrive. Some audio books are only available for WMA (windows media) instead of MP3 (backwards, to me!)

You can use the Overdrive app (or lend through Kindle) on almost every type of smartphone (Android or Apple, doesn't matter) and tablet. You can also read the books through a computer.

(Yep, librarian here. )

We may need a spin off thread here soon.

So does Michigan offer statewide reciprocity? For example. My physical library card is from Baltimore County. However, I have also registered my card in Baltimore City, Howard, Anne Arundel, and Montgomery counties. So I can visit those libraries online or in person and check out, using my Baltimore County library card. The registration process is free and basically as long as I had a library card from SOMEWHERE in the state, I could register in another county.

Does Michigan work this way?

Nope, not with Overdrive. With Overdrive, you must reside in the actual area of card use (or be staff in that area, which is why I can access Overdrive through 3 library systems - staff in 2, live in 1).

You can use your card in different counties/libraries provided you have the MichCard sticker. (Which is ending at the end of the year, though).

We do offer MelCat, which is a way to access the books of almost every library in the state through inter-library loan.

Some libraries do not limit you to having to live in the area in order to get a library card through them. My 'home library' has a residency requirement. My big work library doesn't.

Nope, not with Overdrive. With Overdrive, you must reside in the actual area of card use (or be staff in that area, which is why I can access Overdrive through 3 library systems - staff in 2, live in 1).

My library uses Overdrive and I'm not aware of such a requirement for us. You need to have a valid library card, but there are at least three big library systems that I'm eligible for even though I don't live in their service area. And I know of people who have moved out of an area but still maintain their card specifically for Overdrive or other online services. I would guess that's not on, but it's not really worth the hassle of tracking that sort of patron down.

Anyone here have any experience with Freading, since I mention other services? It looks interesting, and I like the "no waiting period or holds" bit, but I can't really get a feel for how big a collection they have and whether it'd be worth it. I did notice that every library I saw that offers Freading also offers at least one other major online library service, like Overdrive or 3M. That makes me leery of Freading's collection size.

General question for the librarians, because I want to make sure I wasn't horribly off base.

I was living in the dorms in college. I had a student ID showing I was a valid student, I had various pieces of mail from my parents sent to me at the address at the dorms. I went into a local library (right across the street from the dorms and college) and asked to get a library card. I was told by the woman working the desk that without a valid local address, I wouldn't be able to. Okay, I went to get some mail with my address, had my student ID (photo ID) and my driver's license. I was then told that to have proof of a local address, I'd need some sort of utilities bill with my name and address on it.

Is this common? I didn't have any utilities (parents paid cell phone, no bills came to me at the dorms) and apparently the rent agreement at the dorms and the Student ID showing that I was enrolled as a full time student weren't acceptable.

The weird part is when I came back home and needed to get a new account at the local library at my hometown, I had my DL ready, as well as a cell phone bill, but they didn't even ask to see proof of residency. They just asked what my address was. Admittedly, I had an account there from way back when, and they may have looked that up and reactivated it, but it was just such a complete difference from college town to hometown.

General question for the librarians, because I want to make sure I wasn't horribly off base.

I was living in the dorms in college. I had a student ID showing I was a valid student, I had various pieces of mail from my parents sent to me at the address at the dorms. I went into a local library (right across the street from the dorms and college) and asked to get a library card. I was told by the woman working the desk that without a valid local address, I wouldn't be able to. Okay, I went to get some mail with my address, had my student ID (photo ID) and my driver's license. I was then told that to have proof of a local address, I'd need some sort of utilities bill with my name and address on it.

Is this common? I didn't have any utilities (parents paid cell phone, no bills came to me at the dorms) and apparently the rent agreement at the dorms and the Student ID showing that I was enrolled as a full time student weren't acceptable.

The weird part is when I came back home and needed to get a new account at the local library at my hometown, I had my DL ready, as well as a cell phone bill, but they didn't even ask to see proof of residency. They just asked what my address was. Admittedly, I had an account there from way back when, and they may have looked that up and reactivated it, but it was just such a complete difference from college town to hometown.

It is normal to want proof of address at a library, some won't lend to non-locals. One library I'm a member of I can join as a person who lives out if the council area, but I need to pay a fee.

And it doesn't have to be a bill, any official letter with a letter head and your printed name and address should have been fine.

It's comical the pieces of paper you need to procure to prove you are a particular person.

General question for the librarians, because I want to make sure I wasn't horribly off base.

I was living in the dorms in college. I had a student ID showing I was a valid student, I had various pieces of mail from my parents sent to me at the address at the dorms. I went into a local library (right across the street from the dorms and college) and asked to get a library card. I was told by the woman working the desk that without a valid local address, I wouldn't be able to. Okay, I went to get some mail with my address, had my student ID (photo ID) and my driver's license. I was then told that to have proof of a local address, I'd need some sort of utilities bill with my name and address on it.

Is this common? I didn't have any utilities (parents paid cell phone, no bills came to me at the dorms) and apparently the rent agreement at the dorms and the Student ID showing that I was enrolled as a full time student weren't acceptable.

The weird part is when I came back home and needed to get a new account at the local library at my hometown, I had my DL ready, as well as a cell phone bill, but they didn't even ask to see proof of residency. They just asked what my address was. Admittedly, I had an account there from way back when, and they may have looked that up and reactivated it, but it was just such a complete difference from college town to hometown.

It is normal to want proof of address at a library, some won't lend to non-locals. One library I'm a member of I can join as a person who lives out if the council area, but I need to pay a fee.

And it doesn't have to be a bill, any official letter with a letter head and your printed name and address should have been fine.

It's comical the pieces of paper you need to procure to prove you are a particular person.

At our previous address, my husband went through real hassles getting a library card, because I had set up both the phone and electrical accounts, so they both had my name on the bills. They were willing to take a rent bill, but our landlord wanted us to send in everything but a stub that didn't show the address; in the end the solution was to get the rent bill, walk to the library, get a card, and then pay that month's rent.

When we rented this apartment, we were very careful to get the electric in my name and the cable/phone in his, to avoid that problem. But it's really not set up for households with several adults, including elderly people who move in with their children.

Logged

Any advice that requires the use of a time machine may safely be ignored.

General question for the librarians, because I want to make sure I wasn't horribly off base.

I was living in the dorms in college. I had a student ID showing I was a valid student, I had various pieces of mail from my parents sent to me at the address at the dorms. I went into a local library (right across the street from the dorms and college) and asked to get a library card. I was told by the woman working the desk that without a valid local address, I wouldn't be able to. Okay, I went to get some mail with my address, had my student ID (photo ID) and my driver's license. I was then told that to have proof of a local address, I'd need some sort of utilities bill with my name and address on it.

Is this common? I didn't have any utilities (parents paid cell phone, no bills came to me at the dorms) and apparently the rent agreement at the dorms and the Student ID showing that I was enrolled as a full time student weren't acceptable.

The weird part is when I came back home and needed to get a new account at the local library at my hometown, I had my DL ready, as well as a cell phone bill, but they didn't even ask to see proof of residency. They just asked what my address was. Admittedly, I had an account there from way back when, and they may have looked that up and reactivated it, but it was just such a complete difference from college town to hometown.

It is normal to want proof of address at a library, some won't lend to non-locals. One library I'm a member of I can join as a person who lives out if the council area, but I need to pay a fee.

And it doesn't have to be a bill, any official letter with a letter head and your printed name and address should have been fine.

It's comical the pieces of paper you need to procure to prove you are a particular person.

Normal to require *something,* but not normal to insist that it be a utility bill. Generally the proof ends up being "something that proves you live here" and "something that proves you're you." For most people that works out to a piece of mail and a driver's license, but there are issues when someone makes a policy like that and doesn't notice they're excluding a whole segment of the population. (Example: requiring a driver's licence, when a significant ethnic minority tend to not learn to drive because many are first-generation immigrants who don't speak enough English to take the tests. The better option is to require photo ID, which doesn't have to involve the right to operate a car.)

A client called today to complain that no one was answering her calls and she had an emergency. She had left a very tearful message on our emergency line exactly 7 minutes before calling again (we transitioned the phones to "day" during that time). When I spoke to her I got a lecture about how she tried to call my boss because she needed him right away and he wasn't answering and hadn't answered during Thanksgiving. I asked if she had left an emergency message (as opposed to the non-emergency voicemail) and she got very ticked off and said no, she had called Boss directly.

Sigh...when will clients learn that if you need someone right away you need to just call our main number and select the option for "emergency"? Calling boss or myself will NOT get you a call back in any sort of timely fashion if we are not on call and the voicemail is not set up on our cells for a good reason. I do not carry my work cell when I don't need to and I don't answer numbers I don't recognize due to some clients getting really inappropriate. I always leave a message trail on the work VM so someone can figure out where I was for safety.

If you call my boss when I'm on call and he doesn't have his phone I will not telepathically know you need me! Also, telling me you only want my boss to come out when he's not on call will not make me call him and drag him out of bed- he actually won't answer the phone. Our emergency line is VERY clear about how to reach us and it will automatically call whoever is taking emergencies.

Nope, not with Overdrive. With Overdrive, you must reside in the actual area of card use (or be staff in that area, which is why I can access Overdrive through 3 library systems - staff in 2, live in 1).

My library uses Overdrive and I'm not aware of such a requirement for us. You need to have a valid library card, but there are at least three big library systems that I'm eligible for even though I don't live in their service area. And I know of people who have moved out of an area but still maintain their card specifically for Overdrive or other online services. I would guess that's not on, but it's not really worth the hassle of tracking that sort of patron down.

Anyone here have any experience with Freading, since I mention other services? It looks interesting, and I like the "no waiting period or holds" bit, but I can't really get a feel for how big a collection they have and whether it'd be worth it. I did notice that every library I saw that offers Freading also offers at least one other major online library service, like Overdrive or 3M. That makes me leery of Freading's collection size.

It's definitely a requirement. So maybe your libraries don't track their patrons or verify addresses (or something to that effect). Other online services have different requirements, but Overdrive has a residency requirement. It's also possible some of those libraries have a non-residence card (where you would pay a nominal fee to have card with that system to access the extras, like Overdrive).

General question for the librarians, because I want to make sure I wasn't horribly off base.

I was living in the dorms in college. I had a student ID showing I was a valid student, I had various pieces of mail from my parents sent to me at the address at the dorms. I went into a local library (right across the street from the dorms and college) and asked to get a library card. I was told by the woman working the desk that without a valid local address, I wouldn't be able to. Okay, I went to get some mail with my address, had my student ID (photo ID) and my driver's license. I was then told that to have proof of a local address, I'd need some sort of utilities bill with my name and address on it.

Is this common? I didn't have any utilities (parents paid cell phone, no bills came to me at the dorms) and apparently the rent agreement at the dorms and the Student ID showing that I was enrolled as a full time student weren't acceptable.

The weird part is when I came back home and needed to get a new account at the local library at my hometown, I had my DL ready, as well as a cell phone bill, but they didn't even ask to see proof of residency. They just asked what my address was. Admittedly, I had an account there from way back when, and they may have looked that up and reactivated it, but it was just such a complete difference from college town to hometown.

It is normal to want proof of address at a library, some won't lend to non-locals. One library I'm a member of I can join as a person who lives out if the council area, but I need to pay a fee.

And it doesn't have to be a bill, any official letter with a letter head and your printed name and address should have been fine.

It's comical the pieces of paper you need to procure to prove you are a particular person.

Normal to require *something,* but not normal to insist that it be a utility bill. Generally the proof ends up being "something that proves you live here" and "something that proves you're you." For most people that works out to a piece of mail and a driver's license, but there are issues when someone makes a policy like that and doesn't notice they're excluding a whole segment of the population. (Example: requiring a driver's licence, when a significant ethnic minority tend to not learn to drive because many are first-generation immigrants who don't speak enough English to take the tests. The better option is to require photo ID, which doesn't have to involve the right to operate a car.)

I live in a college town, and I look younger then I am. When I moved here and tried to sign up for a library card they were insisting that i needed to show my rental agreement instead of the utility bill I was prepared to show them. They agreed that a copy of my mortgage bill would be good too (which I happened to have in my purse cause I just grabbed the mail before I went). I thought it was funny that they took one look and assumed that I had to be a college student and it didn't occur to them that I might actually be a home owner.

Not exactly a "not Harry Potter" moment, but sort of an inverse "these are not the droids you're looking for" moment of which the posts about demonstrating residency reminded me - years ago, I moved back to home state and needed to get a driver's license. My brother took me to the DMV, and was by me when I went to the counter. I had my driver's license from the state I had moved from, but as I was staying with family short term, had no utilites in my name so had brought some other mail items and paperwork which I had been told over the phone would suffice to show residency.

The clerk said I also needed my husband or a parent (I was well over 21) to vouch for my residency in person. I said I was not married but my brother was with me. Nope, siblings would not do. I said "oh, I forgot - this is my husband." The clerk then accepted my brother's straight faced statement "yes, I am her husband, I can vouch that she is living here now." I left with a license, and my brother and I were equally bemused and amused, while wondering what rationale led to a requirement to hear certain words uttered by one unknown, unverified person to support the residency claim of another.

Logged

Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink -- under any circumstances.Mark Twain

Just imagine how poor co-worker felt as she tried to make sense of this. Luckily hearing it after the fact I got to laugh.

So, basically she was expecting House Elves.

She checked out and demanded to speak to a manager. She complained all over again the exact same points. The manager made our points. She kept going. The manager tried several times before basically saying "sorry you hated it here. Not our fault. Goodbye."